Exterior 60 Wall Street in New York City

SESSION CHAIRS: Liz Waytkus and Todd Grover

Docomomo, the world’s leading organization dedicated to preserving the architecture and design of the Modern Movement, embodies the natural evolution in the field of historic preservation focused on architectural heritage of the 20th century. For nearly forty years, Docomomo has advanced the conversation about what constitutes significance in modern heritage—what should be preserved, and how best to preserve it.

As buildings and landscapes from the interwar period approach their centennial, Docomomo and its global network of peers are continuing the organization’s founding mission by expanding advocacy to include more recent examples of modernism from the later 20th century.

Recognizing that modern architecture and design developed in waves—at different times, in different contexts, around the world, many within the organization now refer to the “Modern Movement” as “Modern Movements.” And yet as the first generation of Docomomo leaders were looking at the ‘values’ of modernism and only secondarily at its stylistic expression, the field has not fully defined its relationship to later styles such as Late Modernism, Postmodernism, New Formalism, and, to a lesser extent, Brutalism.

This panel brings together leading experts to explore these questions: What is MoMo today? Should we advocate for these later stylistic movements? What new scholarship informs our understanding of them? And how are other organizations addressing the preservation challenges of late 20th-century design?

Speakers include:

Gunny Harboe, Founder Docomomo US
Catherine Craft, Director of C20 Society
Paul Goldberger, Writer/Critic
Hannah Simonson, Docomomo US/SoCal
Lidwine Spoormans, Docomomo Netherlands